Lidia Stepanivna Lomikovska made the trek with a cane in one hand and a splintered piece of wood in the other to steady her. Photograph: AP

With a cane in one hand and steadying herself using a splintered piece of wood in the other, Lomikovska walked all day without food or water to reach Ukrainian lines.

Describing her journey, Lomikovska said she fell twice and had to stop to rest at some points, even sleeping along the way before waking up and continuing her journey.

“Once I lost balance and fell into weeds. I fell asleep … a little and continued walking. And then, for the second time, again, I fell. But then I got up and thought to myself I need to keep walking, bit by bit,” Lomikovska said.

Pavlo Diachenko, a police spokesperson, said Ukrainian soldiers spotted Lomikovska walking along a road in the evening. They handed her over to the White Angels, a police group that evacuates citizens living on the frontline, who took her to a shelter for evacuees and contacted her relatives.

Lomikovska said she had survived the second world war. “I had to go through this war too, and in the end, I am left with nothing,” she said. “That war wasn’t like this one. I saw that war. Not a single house burned down. But now, everything is on fire,” she said to her rescuer.

The chief executive of one of Ukraine’s largest banks announced on his Telegram channel on Tuesday that the bank would buy a house for Lomikovska.

“Monobank will buy Lydia Stepanivna a house and she will surely live in it until the moment when this abomination disappears from our land,” Oleh Horokhovskyi said.

Source: Ukrainian woman, 98, walks six miles alone to escape Russian-held territory | Ukraine | The Guardian